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January 06, 2023

Andrew Campbell 

On Dec 30, 2022, the United Nations General Assembly voted to seek judicial opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It focuses on Israel's “alleged illegal occupation” and policies in the occupied territories, according to the Palestinians. ICJ is the UN’s highest judicial body headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. 

Among the votes, 87 agree, 26 deny, and 53 abstain. On one side, Russia, China, North Korea, and the most of Arab, African and Asian member states support the Palestinians. On the other, Israel has English-speaking and European allies, while northern European countries, including France, kept silence.

In Palestine, there has been a century-long conflict between Jews and Arabs. It began in the 1910s, and was intensified in 1949 by the UN’s ruling to separate the region of Palestine between Israel and Palestinians. Now it comes back even more severely, under the current polarization of social and geo-political struggles among the great powers.